Invasion

We all know keeping a garden tidy is time-consuming. Keeping on top of the weeds, hoeing and watering in dry months too takes lots of dedication.

Weeds and Poppies soon overtake when your back is turned

Turn your back for five minutes and the weeds spring up and grow at an amazing pace compared with your crops..  And because we do not use any sprays to curb weeds or kill pests, you have to keep on top of things..

Now we have been so busy with picking, freezing and preserving in recent weeks, that parts of the garden where younger crops were not needed got over looked.

Weeding out revealed the young beetroot, I am leaving either side with weeds and poppies as beneath are young carrots and these easily disturb when you pull up the weeds, So its good habitat for insects and spiders.. Speaking of which I got two bites.. But nothing venomous here in the UK only red and itching marks.. Thank fully,

It didn’t take long before the weeds over took and covered everything up. So while Hubby was digging out the potatoes I got busy with this patch of weeding.

Which was only scratching the surface.. Because there was also in-between the raspberries to re-weed, as well as around the Dahlias . I thinned out the raspberries and tied them up. These were the early ones.

Raspberries tied up and thinned out. And Gladioli in front all cleared and weeded out

The Autumn raspberries are producing loads of fruit too which is being made into flans as quickly as I can pick them and frozen too for storage   The sweetcorn we are picking as each cob ripens and to date we must have had around 30 cobs off and frozen for storage.

Raspberries Autumn variety

The Strawberries finished long ago and were growing runners, These plants were off of last years runners and so this year we read that all you needed to do was cut back the strawberries and allow new growth to form..

Strawberry bed, cut right back in the Autumn and new growth shoots soon sprout.

This is the new growth after only one week.. Even we didn’t believe how they produced new leaves so quickly.. But it has been exceptionally warm this September in what we call our  ‘Indian Summer’ it’s not often the temperatures soar to 24C to 28C this late in the year.. We were not complaining about the good weather. But digging and working in the heat did make both hubby and I wilt a little.

Dried Pea Pods for seeds

 

We also pulled up what was left of the Pea rows.. I had left some pods on deliberately so we could save and dry the seeds for planting next year.

 Below is the Butternut Squash Remember how we spaced them out and How Hubby put half cut plastic bottles for watering later?

This was redug out again, and we have planted butternut squashes in there. We put bottles into the ground when it was dry to allow water to soak into the roots and not get mildew on the leaves.. Since we did that, we have had rain none stop nearly for a week..
We left the Nasturtiums in from seed set last year.
You can see the Old rickety shed is still standing.. Soon to be demolished when we are on top of everything else.

Well this is now how it looks

You can see how those canes come in handy to detect where the bottles are under the leaves to water.

The water system my hubby did with the cut water bottles at the roots of the Butternut Squash when he planted came in handy. The canes marked the spot of the bottles which got lost among the foliage of the squash.

Watering the leaves can lead to mildew so this proved much better for watering and they are thirsty plants, each one would devour a huge watering can in seconds. My arms felt they had grown in length by several inches after carrying water back and forth.. Thankfully this is why we put the water barrels to catch water near the shed, so it saves on leg and arm power walking to and from the water cistern tanks on the allotments.

Harlequin Bug

We also noted we now not only have got invaded with white fly upon our kale and purple sprouting broccoli. But we have over the years been invaded with the Harlequin Ladybug . This ladybug is not native to our Islands and has flown over from Europe. This is causing a threat to our own red native  Ladybug species, as it not only eats the aphids but will also eat the eggs of other ladybugs and butterfly caterpillar larvae too.. So I reported my find, I spotted two on the allotments to the Ladybug Survey Here  So any one in the UK who spots one of these can report it to their website so data is collected.. More about what these Harlequin bugs and their habitats  can be found here

Here to end, yes there is an end to this post.. (Sorry its been a long one this time)  are  the rest of the pictures taken .

Beetroot another row further in the garden

 Happy Gardening until next time 

~Sue~

 

September Allotment Update.

 

Crown Prince Squash.

This week we gathered in the Squash, and  we have tried a new variety called Crown Prince. This is a steel grey squash and is renowned for its excellent long storage  and its eating qualities.

Now I know these do not look it but they are football size!

 I also pruned out the old wood from the Loganberry bushes as Hubby laid the slabs to set our second hand buy greenhouse   More on that in a later post.

We also tried the sweetcorn and its wonderfully sweet..

Sweetcorn, ready to freeze

So the Runner and Dwarf beans are stored,

Last of the Dwarf Beans

The freezer is now filling fast as this is the month to harvest and gather in and I have been making Jam and Chutney’s.. as I know others have been bottling/canning your delicious harvests.

Just some of the Jam I made last year and the Elderberry Syrup

Elderberries ready for making Elderberry Syrup

I thought if any of you are into Wine Making I would share a recipe I came across in an old gardening magazine which was ready for the bin in a clear out session.

Bee Pollinating the Blackberries in spring .

Very simply pick yourself a couple pounds of Blackberries, or you could bulk it out with apples or even plums.. its up to you, but from experience, I prefer just the blackberries.

Chop and mash them altogether, put into a stainless steel or enamel bucket and pour over a gallon of rain or spring water. Leave for 24 hrs before straining the liquid into a demi-john, add a pound and a half of sugar, or more depending on taste. Stir to help dissolve. And that’s it, pop on an Airlock Stopper, leave until it stops ‘glurping’ and then bottle. Yeast it says isn’t usually necessary , you will see if it does need it within a day if it doesn’t start fermenting then add some. ( it didn’t say how much though if needed )  The longer left in the bottle the better the flavour.

 

Do any of you make your own Wine?

There is some Home Made Wine Video’s on this Link! 

And if you click the above photo it will take you to a very easy how to make wine  video. 

In the past we have made Parsnip, Rhubarb, Elderberry, but the best wine we ever did make was Strawberry.. It was delicious..

Happy Slurping all you Gardeners.. 

~Sue~

Harvesting in Pictures ~August update

Most of the time I forget to take my Camera with me to the allotments, but August has been full of harvesting.. Dwarf beans have been in abundance, and we have frozen loads..  We didn’t set so many Kidney beans as last year we were overrun with them.. But the Black-fly got to a lot of the new young beans early on so that made less of a crop.. Having said that, we have still managed to give several carry bags full away as well as eat and freeze plenty. 

Dwarf Beans have been in abundance this year and this is only one picking… We have frozen many of these for our Winter veggies

Ready for the freezer.. The tomatoes you see were given us by another allotment holder .. I gave her a bunch of Gladioli’s and Dahlia’s… We often exchange like this ,, Its good to share

Tomatoes have not ripened as well this year.. our fellow allotment friend has a poly-tunnel and so the heat in there has meant theirs have ripened well before ours in the green house  in our home  back garden . But we did a swap.. I gave her some flowers and she gave me some of her lovely tomatoes. I also gave some beans to another allotment holder and he said help myself to some of his plums as his were dropping off his tree they were so ripe. 

Tomatoes just starting to ripen, its been cooler this year earlier on and so they are now just catching up

  Hubby took off the leaves to help the tomatoes ripen more.  And we had our first cucumber too.. Sorry that’s now eaten, so no picture, 🙂 

Tomatoes and cucumber plant

Courgettes have been plentiful, the peas not as good as last year, But we have had some lovely Cabbage ( Golden Acre Primo ) Very sweet and tender. 

The Big success this year is our carrots, in successive years the carrot fly always seemed to win, and so this year we changed our seeds..  and tried (The Autumn King ) and planted later than usual to try to avoid the carrot fly.. We also refrained from weeding along side and in the carrot row.. Hubby pulled up a handful to see how they were doing the other day and we were happy with the results 

Carrots are looking good no wire worm from the carrot fly either

In the picture below you will see as you compare the picture above the clearing out that was done.. I took the old Broccoli stalks up and the peas, I left some peas in their pods to dry out for planting next year.  Under the green netting is the rest of the early planted chard.. I planted more in the plot and that is now around 6inches high I have been using the small leaves in salads,  We still have loads of beetroot too.  The sweetcorn is about a week away from being ready. 

Clearing out and weeding

These were some of the flowers I exchanged for some Tomatoes

And my Hearth is still being filled with these wonderful blooms.

Happy Gardening 

~Sue~